Liz Rodriguez gets tossed in the air during a FIFA Summer of Soccer event at Sundance Square. The plaza’s viewing parties brought thousands of visitors to downtown Fort Worth.
Elvis Martinez-Cartagena
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
CORRECTION: This article has been update to correct the crowd sizes for the World Cup watch parties at the Sundance Square plaza.
Corrected Jul 25, 2026
Downtown residents watching Sundance Square’s slow reinvention have a lot to track this year. A new CEO is coming in. An outside real estate firm is now handling retail leasing on more than 105,000 square feet of empty storefronts. And the district just came off its highest-profile summer in years, with World Cup watch parties drawing 80,000 to 90,000 people to the plaza on peak nights.
For anyone who’s moved into Deco 969 or one of downtown’s converted office towers, the question is whether all of this adds up to the neighborhood you signed a lease for.
New leadership at the top
Former Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus takes over as president and CEO of Sundance Square on Sept. 1, after Sasha Bass — who has led the 37-block district since 2019 — stepped aside.
Kraus joined Sundance Square in 2021 to run the security division and has since expanded into strategic operations.
Bass is stepping back to focus on the Sasha and Edward P. Bass family foundation. Under her tenure, visitor counts doubled to 17 million in 2025, according to Sundance Square, and roughly 60 businesses now operate in the district.
Downtown Fort Worth Inc. President Andy Taft called Kraus “a proven leader who has seen Sundance Square from multiple angles.”
City Council member Elizabeth Beck, who represents downtown, called Kraus “an exceptional leader” in an email to the Star-Telegram.
An outside firm is leasing the empty storefronts
In May, Sundance Square contracted with real estate services firm JLL to handle “targeted retail leasing” of more than 105,000 square feet — less than 3% Sundance Square’s premium commercial leaseable space, Sundance Square says.
“We see significant opportunity to further strengthen the tenant mix in ways that reflect both Fort Worth’s identity and evolving consumer demand,” Kraus said in a press release announcing the JLL deal.
The move is a shift for a district that brought all leasing in-house in November 2020, shortly after Ed and Sasha Bass took sole ownership.
A 2024 Star-Telegram survey of 104 square blocks found roughly a quarter of ground floor retail spaces downtown were vacant, an improvement from 31.4% in 2021 but still a drag on the walkable urban experience.
For office space, Sundance last summer hired Fort Worth-based LanCarte Commercial to lease the Chase building, the Cassidy, the Schwartz building and the Worthington Bank building. The Schwartz includes a co-working space called the Maven.
What’s actually opening (and what’s gone)
The 300 block of Houston Street, long a sore spot after Reata Restaurant left for the Tower in 2024, may soon show signs of life.
A new bar called Spotlight is planned for the former Reata space. Demolition crews have cleared out the old Pizzeria Uno, though no tenant has been announced.
The losses have been real too. Haltom’s Jewelers, which opened its first Fort Worth store in 1905 and moved to Sundance Square in 1988, closing all three locations in 2024.
“For decades, this business has not only set the standard for quality and craftsmanship, but has also been a symbol of the culture, style, and spirit that makes our town unique,” Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Montgomery said in a statement ahead of the 2024 closing..
Thousands of visitors
Thousands visit the plaza for Saturday night concerts, the city’s Christmas tree and the New Year’s Eve celebrations, making it the city’s top visitor attraction, according to Sundance Square, citing a JLL Commercial Real Estate study.
Sundance Square hosted watch parties for the entirety of the 2026 World Cup, and the June 18 Mexico vs. South Korea match drew 80,000 to 90,000 people to the plaza and surrounding streets. The 104 matches attracted more than 1 million visitors, Sundance Square said.
NBC Sports named Sundance Square one of the best places in the U.S. to watch the tournament. Sundance added a third viewing screen partway through the summer to handle demand.
“There’s been a lot of movement, like we’ve had a lot more people coming in the stores, people from all over the world, which is incredible,” said Andy Santos, who works at Stretch and Tone at 302 Main St.
Cesar Luna, co-owner of Hopscotch at 101 W. Third St., said the games brought major visibility for the Mexican treats and sweets shop, which opened in 2023.
This story was originally published July 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM.